The Evolution of Modern Marketing Automation [INFOGRAPHIC]

In the beginning, a manufacturer's market was limited by the number of goods they could product. As the population expanded and industrialization took hold, however, the number of potential goods became larger than the number of available customers, which gave way to intense competition.

Suddenly manufacturers needed a mechanism to prove that their products or services were better than that of their competitors.

And so modern marketing was born.

Fast forward through new media revolutions -- of radio, TV, the Internet and smartphones -- and the manufacturers' marketing platform has grown from cheap antebellum magazine spreads to a complex mix of digital, print, social and interpersonal contact.

This infographic, produced for IndustryWeek by Marketo Marketing Automation Tools and BlueGlass Interactive, walks through the evolution of this field from its simple roots to its complex present.